Carjacker Flags Down Police to Turn Himself In After Discovering Child In Car He Stole

By: Mackenzie Wright | April 28, 2018

In our society, we tend to like to divide people up as the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys'. It's easy to try and categorize people, though reality has proven that it's an over simplistic way of looking at people.

Even criminals are individuals, and they each have their own standards of morality to which they adhere. One man was willing to steal a car, but when he found something inside he hadn't initially noticed, he realized he didn't want to cross that line. He quickly turned himself in.

Francisco Esmerado, a 23-year-old in Salt Lake City, Utah, spotted a woman pull into the parking lot of a motel. The woman stopped the car and jumped out, but left it running.

She raced into the lobby. The car was just sitting there, unattended, and Esmerado decided to take a chance.

The carjacker seized the moment, jumped in the car and sped away. He headed straight for the interstate and was about to put some distance between himself and his victim when he realized something: he wasn't alone in the car.

Esmerado was shocked to realize that a 12-year-old boy was sitting in the back seat of the car. He didn't notice the child when he climbed in and took off. Apparently, the mother was only rushing into the motel lobby to register quickly and she asked the child to stay put.

The car jacker might not have had any reservations about stealing a car, but kidnapping was an entirely different matter. Worried about the boy getting back to his mother safely, he pulled over and jumped out, then flagged down a passing patrol car.

Esmerado admitted to police what he did and told them that the boy was in the car, unharmed. He wanted to make sure that the boy got home to his mother.

“We believe he was just trying to steal the vehicle and didn’t know the kid was in there,” Sgt. Brandon Shearer confirmed to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

According to police, Esmerado claims he only stole the car because he was 'trying to get away', though they're not sure who or what was coming after him that prompted him to flee in someone else's vehicle.

They were just glad that the boy was unharmed and that Esmerado did the right thing in the end.

The mother and child were reunited shortly after the carjacking.

Esmerado was charged with first-degree felony kidnapping, second-degree felony theft of a vehicle and third-degree violation of probation. He's being held in the Salt Lake County jail on $25,000 bail.

Esmerado isn't the only car thief who realized he made a huge mistake after finding a child in the car. One carjacker in Los Angeles, California spotted a vehicle and sped away in it. She soon realized that there was a 1-year-old baby strapped in a car seat in the back.

The mother was only about 10 feet away from the car running an errand. She was horrified when she witnessed the car speeding away with her baby inside.

Thankfully, the carjacker didn't want any part of kidnapping charges. She pulled over and left the car parked near a construction sight, then fled on foot.

Construction workers saw the car and noticed the baby inside. They called police, and the baby and mother were reunited. The mother said she learned an important lesson the hard way: don't leave kids in the car unattended, no matter how close you'll be or how quickly you'll be.